Writing food in fiction depends on your genre—and getting it right can make the difference between an immersive reader experience and a scene that bogs down your plot. In this video, I share the genres where rich sensory food detail pays off, plus a hard-won lesson from early in my career about what happens when characters eat a little too enthusiastically on the page.
Does genre make a difference when deciding how much detail about food to include? Yes, it certainly does. In cozy mysteries, for example, it would be appropriate to include more sensory details about food. The experiential bits, the aroma of bread baking in the kitchen, the scent of the herbs and the tea.
You wouldn’t typically find that in other genres, although I could certainly see in memoir that it might be important. But I do want to warn you about one particular issue having to do with food, and that’s people’s eating it, slowing the plot. This was a mistake I made early on in my career, and my editor was like, this is an amateur mistake, don’t do this. I had them order Chinese food to go, and I had one character nibbling on a spare rib.
In between making a comment and then more spirit, another comment. It was like, yeah, no, they have Chinese food. They’re enjoying it. Let someone use chopsticks and someone not. That says something about the character, but stop with the bite by bite, play by play. It’s funny, right? So there you go. Good luck making those decisions. How much to include and what to include. Tough stuff. I know you can do it.
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